The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices, and more particularly, to a system and method for placement and deployment of a prosthesis in a vessel lumen.
The use of delivery devices or introducers employing catheters has long been known for a variety of medical procedures, including procedures for establishing, re-establishing or maintaining passages, cavities or lumens in vessels, organs or ducts in human and veterinary patients, occlusion of such vessels, delivering medical treatments, and other interventions. For these procedures, it has also long been known to deliver an implantable prosthesis by means of a catheter, often intraluminally. For example, a stent, stent-graft, vena cava filter, occlusion device, or other prostheses can be delivered intraluminally from the femoral artery, via a transapical approach and/or using other acceptable delivery locations and methods for deployment of the prosthesis.
For procedures in which a prosthesis or other medical device is implanted into a patient, the prosthesis to be implanted is normally held on a carrier catheter or cannula of the introducer in a compressed state. The prosthesis is positioned between the walls of the introducer and a sheath over the prosthesis. The prosthesis is then released from the cannula so as to expand to its normal operating state, prior to withdrawal of the cannula from the patient. In many devices, the steps to carry out the implantation can occur, for example, first by retracting a retractable sheath to expand or partially expand the prosthesis, and then performing further steps to, for example, release one or both ends of the prosthesis, deploy an anchoring stent, or the like. Other steps may include pushing a tubular shell of a dilator tip forward relative to a reverse tapered body in order to partially expand a top portion, such as a bare top stent, of the prosthesis. Often these steps require the physician operator to manipulate multiple handles and pin vises to lock and unlock relevant components. The prosthesis which is to be implanted within a patient's vessels by the delivery device may vary depending on various factors including the procedure being performed and the portion of the vessels being treated. The delivery device described herein can be configured to deploy a wide range of different prostheses including, but not limited to cuffs, single lumen tubular stent grafts, bifurcated AAA stent grafts, branched or fenestrated stent grafts and combinations thereof. In addition to facilitating the delivery of a wide range of prostheses, the delivery device can be used for a variety of delivery approaches to be utilized, including but not limited to transapical or femoral approaches.